The invention relates generally to client computers on the World Wide Web (WWW) and deals more particularly with web browser programs.
The WWW is well known and comprises a multitude of computer servers, respective data bases and a network by which client computers can communicate with the servers and request and load the data. A server may directly manage its own data base and access other, remote data bases on behalf of a client user. The client typically includes a "web browser" program to provide a user interface to the WWW.
The server presents the data to the user as "web pages" and each web page is represented by a "URL" address. The URL comprises an access method/protocol such as http as a prefix, a server name or "home page" and the data type, if any, as a suffix. The server name typically includes a "domain name" which is the name of a company, educational institution or other organization that owns the server. There are different ways that a client can access a web page. If the client knows the server name and data type suffix, if any, the client can directly request the web page from the server. However, if the client only knows the server name, the client can address the server name, and in response, the server will present the "home page" for the server. For those web pages for which the user does not know at least the server name, there are different types of search engines, such as key word search engines and catalog search engines, to identify a server and/or web page of interest. The home page, as well as other web pages, typically include text or graphics which serve as links to other web pages. The links are sometimes called "hot links" or "click points", and when a user selects a link with a mouse, the web browser requests the corresponding web page from the server and then displays the web page upon receipt.
Whenever a web browser requests a web page from the server, either by a user specifying a URL or selecting a link, the web page is loaded to the client machine in the form of an html file. The html file comprises a specification of each component of the web page--text, graphics, the nature of the component and whether each text or graphic is a link to another web page. The format of the conventional html is an industry standard and is further defined in "HTML for Fun and Profit" by Mary E. S. Morris published in 1995 by SunSoft Press, A Prentice Hall title. In the case of text, the html defines the actual text and its location on the web page. However, in the case of graphics, the html does not define the graphics itself but instead specifies a pointer to other files, remote to the client, which actually define the graphics. Some of the graphics are complex. While the graphics add meaning to the web page and can serve as links, they are often time consuming to load especially if the graphics are complex. The time delay is caused by the slowness of the communication lines between the client and the server or other remote repository for the graphics files. Thus, after selecting a link, the user must wait for the corresponding html and graphics files to be loaded, and this wait can be extensive. During this wait, as the web pages is gradually received, the web browser builds the web page on the screen and the user cannot utilized this or any other web page.
A general object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for reducing the time that a user is foreclosed from using a web page while another web page corresponding to one of its selected links is loaded.